from the Winnipeg Free Press
"Tom Mulcair says he has nothing to learn from Conservatives about how an official Opposition leader should comport himself when travelling outside Canada.
"Indeed, the NDP leader says the Tories — who've been bashing him all week for allegedly "trash talking" Canada during a visit to Washington and New York — seem to have forgotten the way they behaved in Opposition…."
from The Toronto Star
"There are two stories in the federal Liberal leadership race.
"The first is that Justin Trudeau is set to win. This was underlined Wednesday when fellow leadership contender Marc Garneau announced he was withdrawing to support Trudeau.
"The second story, more worrisome for the Liberals, is that the excitement generated by Trudeau’s candidacy is exceptionally thin…."
from the BC government
VICTORIA– The BC government has released its report into the draft Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan. The report identifies that partisan activity among some officials breached the public service standards of conduct and some government resources were misused.
Premier Christy Clark ordered the review into the circumstances around the development of and activities flowing from the multicultural outreach plan to determine whether government resources were misused or standards of conduct were violated.
The report shows:
There were two serious instances of government resources being misused.
The four deputy ministers conducted the review in 14 days. They conducted 27 interviews, gathered approximately 10,000 pages of documents for cataloguing and analysis, and directed a forensic analysis of electronic data from government systems.
The report recommendations include:
All of the review team’s requests for interviews were granted, including from those outside the public service and those no longer employed with government. The review team experienced no obstacles to obtaining the information required to prepare a thorough and complete report.
The review team comprised the most senior public servants who have the full authority over all government financial transactions, public service conduct and government resources and records policy.
With the completion of this review, the review team has directed the approximately 10,000 pages of records be prepared for public release consistent with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act within 60 working days from release of this report, to post them on the Open Information website.
Apart from the employees specifically named in the analysis and the conclusion section of the report, the review team found that the other employees identified acted with integrity and in an exemplary manner in all aspects of their work and their involvement with the issues discussed in this report.
Learn More:
Backgrounder
Recommendations, scope, process and terms of reference
Recommendation 1: The Chief of Staff should consider the involvement and culpability of each of the political staff engaged in the events discussed in this report and take appropriate disciplinary and corrective action. These actions must consider other appropriate factors including the level of their participation, authority in the organization and their employment record.
Recommendation 2: The Chief of Staff should set expectations for all political staff to ensure that all financial and administrative policies of government pertaining to procurement, records management and the supervision of government contractors are followed without exception.
Recommendation 3: Specific direction should be provided to all staff employed in ministers’ offices and in Government Communications and Public Engagement to ensure that they understand their obligations with respect to the use of government email and the appropriate use of personal computers for government purposes, as outlined in Government Core Policy.
Recommendation 4: The Legal Services Branch of the Ministry of Justice should take appropriate action to secure any government records in the possession of former public servants or caucus employees named in this report and seek an undertaking that these records have not been used for inappropriate purpses.
Recommendation 5: The Head of the Public Service Agency should conduct a review of the various policies in place to govern the Standards of Conduct for both political and public service staff across other Canadian and international jurisdictions and make recommendations to the Cabinet on potential legislative and policy changes in BC.
Recommendation 6: As required by the Financial Administration Act, Section 33.2, the findings in this report will be referred to the Comptroller General to determine if any recovery of expenditures or payments is necessary.
Review scope: The scope of the review included government, partisan or caucus activities that relate directly to the use of government funds, activities by government employees using government resources or direction to government employees based on non-government policies.
Review process: The review team followed the following steps in undertaking this review:
Terms of Reference
On Feb. 28, 2013, Premier Christy Clark asked John Dyble, Deputy Minister to the Premier, Cabinet Secretary and head of the B.C. Public Service, to conduct a review of the draft Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan to ensure that no government resources were inappropriately used, nor violations of the Public Service Act (Public Service Standards of Conduct) committed.
The written report once completed will be made public.
Terms of Reference:
Review Team
Lead Reviewer: John Dyble, Deputy Minister to the Premier, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the BC Public Service
Team:
"Barack Obama will present no new Middle East peace initiative when he makes his first visit as president to Israel next week, the White House confirmed on Thursday.
"Obama is due to arrive in Israel on Wednesday at the start of a three-day trip that will also take in the West Bank and Jordan, a tour critics have said is largely devoid of substance…"
from The Independent
"They were led out at dawn today, one by one, to the public killing grounds. The Seven Saudi Arabian men had been sentenced to death following what human rights groups and the UN said were deeply flawed trials conducted under Sharia law. Some of them were juveniles when they were charged with being part of a gang of thieves in the Saudi town of Abha. But that didn’t save them from the firing squad.
from the Vancouver Observer
"Yesterday Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver held a press conference to respond to NDP leader Tom Mulcair's open objection to the Keystone XL pipeline. Oliver, who has recently returned from a US tour to advertise Canada's tar sands as green, finds Mulcair's recent trip to Washington, D.C. somewhat disconcerting.
"'It isn't helpful when a senior Member of Parliament comes down there either directly or indirectly to speak against a project that is in Canada's national interest,' Oliver said…"
from The Nation
“'In Benedict, the Catholic Church got the pope it deserved,' writes John Patrick Shanley in The New York Times. Shanley, author of the play Doubt, pulls no punches. Pope Benedict, he correctly charges, is 'a protector of priests who abused children. He’d been a member of the Hitler Youth. In addition to this woeful résumé, he had no use for women.'
"This pope led a multinational corporation mired in financial scandals and unable to fire the most egregious criminals in its midst. There is almost no country he can visit where Catholics have not suffered because of the Church. In Africa, the church’s opposition to birth control and to condoms to prevent AIDS transmission contributes to high rates of maternal death and AIDS…"
from the Chronicle Herald
The Nova Scotia government has rejected an application from Snow Island Salmon to allow a fish farm in Shoal Bay.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau says during the 22-month review process, Fisheries and Oceans Canada expressed concern about the salmon farm’s impact on wild salmon in the bay near Sheet Harbour…
The Guardian
Whenever there's a 99.8 percent yes vote in a referendum, it's a pretty safe bet that something dodgy's going on. And despite David Cameron's insistence that the North Korean-style ballot in the Falkland Islands — or Malvinas as they're known in Argentina — should be treated with "reverence", that rule of thumb clearly fits the bill in this case.
Which is not to suggest that the ballot boxes were stuffed. No doubt 1,514 island residents really did vote in favour of continued British rule. The only surprise was that three islanders dared to spoil the rousing choruses of Land of Hope and Glory by voting against…
from the BC Civil Liberties Association
Josh Paterson, Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, reacted today to the report to Parliament by Canada’s correctional investigator that Indigenous people account for 23 percent of the country’s federal prison population with higher rates in Western Canada, and that Indigenous people are sentenced to longer terms and are less likely to be granted parole than other people:
“This is an appalling example of the discrimination against Indigenous people in this country and it is tearing communities and families apart. While those who commit crimes should be dealt with appropriately by the justice system, these numbers make clear that the system over-polices and over-incarcerates Indigenous people. This is racist and it is unacceptable.
“The situation is particularly bad for Indigenous women, and young Indigenous women in particular. Fifty six percent of girls in BC youth custody are First Nations. As the tragic history of missing and murdered women makes clear, the justice system has failed to protect Indigenous women and instead has focused on punishing them.
“The justice system absolutely must do better in its dealings with Indigenous people. This includes ensuring that Indigenous people are fairly treated in policing, and when charged, fairly treated in sentencing, including taking into account social and historical factors affecting them like colonialism, residential schools and poverty — a requirement that was recently affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
“These findings come as no surprise and we see constant examples of this discrimination through our work in communities all over BC. Canada’s unjust over-imprisonment of Indigenous people — at federal and provincial prisons alike — must be put to an end.”
